Our goal is to create the world's most comprehensive virtual atlas -- the best, most complete map of the earth. This is no easy task, and we know we can't accomplish it without the help of our users, because nobody knows a neighborhood better than the folks who live in it.

In April of 2007, we launched a feature called My Maps that lets anybody create a map quickly and easily just by pointing and clicking. We wanted to enable all the world's local experts to map our their neighborhoods, their hobbies, their interests.

Over the past 11 months, people have created more than 9 million My Maps, encompassing a total of 40 million placemarks. That's an impressive 1 new placemark created every second! We never anticipated that people would become so interested in mapmaking, which used to be accessible only to priests, scholars, and academics.